Craig Nolan

Horizon Minerals has awarded ASX-listed GR Engineering with the scope to complete engineering studies on the mothballed Black Swan processing facility to have it roar back to life as a gold plant. The coveted piece of infrastructure was secured by Horizon from its recent merger with Poseidon Nickel. The Kalgoorlie plant was used to process nickel before it was placed on care and maintenance.

Pilot Energy has boosted its WA Leander prospective gas resource by a whopping 250 per cent to an estimated 1116 billion cubic feet of gas and 18 million barrels of condensate. The upgrade to the resource followed a detailed review of offset wells, including onshore exploration and appraisal wells, in addition to remapping of 2D seismic data.

Altech Batteries has locked in the backing of a major shareholder, German-based investment firm Deutsche Balaton AG, by securing funding via a bond note facility for up to €2.5 million (A$4.3m) to further develop its new-age battery projects. The company has land in Johor, Malaysia, for sale and expects the proceeds will be sufficient to repay any borrowed funds.

Strickland Metals has kicked off a ground gravity survey across its massive 7.5km intrusion-related gold system at the company’s 108,900-ounce Dusk ‘til Dawn gold camp, which is part of its wider Yandal project in WA. The gravity survey will allow for improved modelling of the intrusive gold system and help pinpoint upcoming drill testing.

Lindian Resources has bolstered its leadership team with Robert Martin leaping into the hot seat as the new executive chairman and Teck Lim joining as CFO, as it drives its Malawi rare earths project forward.

Junior explorers such as E79 Gold Mines, Caprice Resources and Thunderbird Resources have seen a significant spike in their share price when betting on a nearology play near a recent or historical discovery. E79’s share price surged from its February 6 close of 1.9c to hit a high of 5.4c on February 19 in the two weeks after a neighbour announced a greenfields gold discovery.

Altech Batteries has secured the necessary environmental and construction permit to build the company’s Cerenergy GridPack production facility in Saxony, Germany, and can now focus on locking in pr

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining is gearing up for an expanded air core drilling campaign to test for extensions to its recent Lighthorse gold discovery at the company’s Pinjin project in WA’s renowned Laverton gold region. The upcoming drill program will aim to stretch the impressive discovery’s footprint by nearly 2.5km, with drilling planned for up to 1.4km to the north and 1km to the south of the mineralised zone.

Reach Resources’ latest drilling program has confirmed the company’s gold model with mineralisation intersected in every hole, validating historical results at the company’s Murchison South gold project, near Paynes Find in WA’s gold-rich Murchison region. The company now plans to optimise pit shells targeting the shallow, higher-grade, narrow-vein gold encountered within the project’s low-grade mineralised envelopes.

Strickland Metals has identified two new compelling targets near its 108,900-ounce Dusk ‘til Dawn gold camp with the potential for the targets to represent the core of a much larger gold system. The company is also planning to soon reveal an updated mineral resource at its Horse Well gold camp, both part of the wider Yandal project in WA.

Horizon Minerals has poured its first gold bar from ore mined at the company’s Phillips Find project amid a strong gold price environment, which has seen the precious yellow metal rise by 11pc this year. The ore was hauled to the nearby Greenfields mill from its project that sits 45km west of Coolgardie, near the famous gold mining town of Kalgoorlie.

King River Resources has wrapped up the sale of its Speewah critical minerals project in WA’s rugged Kimberley to NT resources firm Tivan Ltd. The sale was initiated two years ago for a mix of cash and shares worth $20 million. The deal was restructured in February last year, resulting in a $2.4m payment last December with no further shares to be issued.

Lithium Universe has approved a final investment to progress its Bécancour lithium refinery in Canada and will now aim to secure US$549m (A$862m) in funding for the project, which has a net present value of US$718m (A$1.128b). The project is expected to generate EBITDA of US$148m from annual revenue of US$383m with a 3.9-year payback based on current price assumptions.

Askari Metals has pumped up its gold resource by 28pc to 82,700 ounces grading 1.2g/t at its Burracoppin project in the WA Wheatbelt, winning over market punters who pushed up the price earlier today by more than 100pc. Due to a booming gold price, the company says it has fielded significant enquiries for the project, which sits 20km east of Merredin.

Red Metal’s latest infill drilling program has unearthed thick intersections of valuable magnet rare earths at the Kary zone within the company’s Sybella project, 20km from the Queensland mining town of Mount Isa. Multiple long intervals up to 162m thick containing the four magnet metals were encountered from surface or shallow depths from the infill drilling, with many holes ending in mineralisation.

Kalgoorlie Gold Mining’s share price rocketed today to touch 8.9c for a weekly gain of 456pc after a new gold discovery at the company’s Pinjin project, within WA’s renowned Laverton gold region. The new Lighthorse gold zone returned assays of 17m grading 4.81g/t from a depth of 48m and 4m at 4.72g/t from 52m.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Kalgoorlie Gold Mining. The company’s share price rocketed after a new discovery at its Pinjin gold project in WA. OzAurum Ltd found more gold at its Eastern goldfields WA project, AusQuest Ltd got another boost after confirming its Peruvian copper find and EQ Resources got a lift from China restricting exports on tungsten-related products.

Aurumin Ltd and potential joint-venture partner Newcam Minerals have kicked off drilling for iron ore at the Central Sandstone project in WA’s Mid West. The two companies sealed a deal last October providing Newcam with a six-month option on the iron ore rights at the site. The companies will jointly fund the costs of the drill program.

Aurumin Ltd has sunk its teeth into the company’s Plum Pudding gold deposit, revealing a 33 per cent rise in its resource after a recent drilling program at its Central Sandstone gold project, 520km northeast of Perth. The additional 4600 ounces of gold resources boosted its overall tally to 951,000 ounces, edging closer to a magical million ounces.

This week’s ASX Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Bio-Gene Technology. The company’s shares leapt after revealing it scored a slice of two United States defence grants. Alterity Therapeutics unveiled successful phase two clinical trial results, Aston Minerals’ plans for a merger with a fellow goldie won market support and Canterbury Resources discovered a new copper zone.

Metals used for steel alloys, once considered the poor cousins to iron ore, are starting to come into vogue, with both big and small players moving heaven and earth to uncover the next big discovery of metals vital to the massive global steel industry. The coveted group includes manganese, vanadium, molybdenum and others and Australia has rich resources of all of them.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… AusQuest Ltd. The company’s shares leapt after reporting a stunning copper-gold porphyry discovery in Peru. Hydrix revealed a $2.8 million contract extension with a European medical firm, Pentanet showed improved financials in its 5G and gaming business and Pointerra updated the market with news of improved customer receipts for its digital twin business.

The WA Government has stumped up $175,000 for research into the extraction of rare earths, predominantly within the State’s Yilgarn region, with Perth-based geological firm RSC Consulting to lead the study. RSC will work closely with respected WA junior mining firms Terrain Minerals, Dreadnought Resources, Narryer Metals, Pluto Resources and Curtin University’s Resources Technology and Critical Minerals Trailblazer program.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Wellard Limited. The company is quitting the livestock transport business and spiked on news it has sold a ship for US$50 million. Condor Energy increased its gas resource by 147 per cent, Western Gold Resources revealed a preferred contractor for its Gold Duke operation and Terrain Minerals kicked-off drilling at its Lort River nickel-copper project.

A consortium of South Korean mega-energy firms is set to enter into an agreement with Pilot Energy to jointly develop the Mid West clean energy project in the Perth Basin to secure a supply of ammonia. The ammonia will be used in coal-fired power plants. The consortium received more than $2m in funding last November from the Korea Export-Import Bank to conduct a feasibility study on the project.

ABx Group’s 83 per cent owned subsidiary ALCORE is set to produce aluminium fluoride at the company’s pilot plant, which will be established at a facility adjacent to Rio Tinto Aluminium’s Bell Bay smelter in northern Tasmania. ALCORE plans to prove its world-first process to produce hydrogen fluoride from smelter waste, which will then be converted into aluminium fluoride, essential for the aluminium smelter industry.

Horizon Minerals has poured its first gold bars from ore hauled from its Boorara project, near the famous mining town of Kalgoorlie in WA, under its ore sale agreement revealed last year with Norton Gold Fields’ Paddington mill. Proceeds from the sale are expected to be pumped into the company’s bank account within the week.

Horizon Minerals has pumped $6.345 million into its bank account via an at-market share placement of 4.5c per share with a further $3.28 million expected shortly, all earmarked for the development of its soon-to-be producing gold deposits. Privately-owned Golden Crane Holdings will stump up the entire $9.625 million via a two-tranche placement in exchange for approximately 213 million shares in Horizon.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is … Sparc Technologies. The company is developing new-age hydrogen technology using sunlight to split water without the use of an electrolyser. Argent Biopharma raised funds at a significant premium to its last closing price while Australian Mines boosted its scandium resource and Dimerix revealed a tie-in with a Japanese pharmaceutical firm to treat kidney disease.

St George Mining has joined forces with two of Brazil’s leading government scientific agencies to develop an optimal downstream process for the company’s niobium and rare earth mineralisation at its Araxá project. The company recently secured $20 million in funding to acquire 100 per cent of the project located within the renowned mining region of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil.

This week’s Bulls N’ Bears Runner of the Week is… Tasman Resources. The South Australian mineral explorer has a series of impressive targets to follow up with a drilling program. Bridge SaaS received some love from a substantial shareholder keen to increase its stake in the firm, while other movers and shakers this week were New Frontier Minerals and Axel REE.

Aurumin has kicked off its latest 1600m drill program and will launch into its prospective Plum Pudding deposit where a mouth-watering 18m drill hit graded 25.8g/t gold at its Central Sandstone project about 520km northeast of Perth. The company also plans to target extensional and infill drilling at its Shillington deposit and aims to crash through the million-ounce milestone at the project shortly.